Devil's Night
by Arienna Natalitha
Summary: On a late Thursday evening in the middle of a blackout, Tsuna found a pair of hetero chromatic eyes looming over him. Things went spiraling down from there. AU Mukuro and Tsuna-ish. Chapter 3 is up!
1. Chapter 1

_Devil's Night_

_Chapter I_

"_Eyes"_

_by Arienna Natalitha_

_Disclaimer: Reborn isn't mine._

Tsuna was walking home late from his cram school. There had been a quiz that he didn't understand, and he had asked his tutor to explain it to him. And when he realized the time, it was already 9 PM.

He hopped the entrance portal of a residence, taking a shortcut. But just when he was starting to climb the boulevard hill, the lights around the road suddenly went off. The few lights from the houses on the rear side of the road had all also simultaneously went off as well. Was this a blackout?

Even if this is a residence area, it felt too quiet. Tsuna realized that far on his right side behind the buildings was untouched woodland area. He felt shivers run down his spine at the thought of being alone in a deserted road near woodland area at night on a blackout. But he forced himself nonetheless to keep walking on, and reassuring himself that all this feelings of fright and anxiety will disperse as soon as he saw the face of his mother and noisy Lambo and I-Pin back at home.

But, just in case, he fastened his pace.

In this eerie silence that engulfs him, he could only hear the sound of his footsteps and the loud pounding of his heartbeat.

He kept walking, and he began to question himself whether he heard something akin to a whisper on his ear. Or was it just a breeze of wind that played mind tricks on him?

His heart continues to beat like crazy, and now he was sure he heard an eerie sound of something being impaled in a slow motion to a wall. P-probably it was just one of the residence putting nails to the wall to hang something? Right?

Well... anyway... before he began to lose his sanity-or worse, starting to scream like a girl for letting his fear and his paranoia get the best of him, Tsuna pretended to be all cool and walked as if he had no care in the world, and he started humming his school's anthem (just like the little bird his scary prefect owned).

_Crash_

He stopped his hum halfway, and his movement stopped altogether.

But then he heard murmurs of people, and his shoulders relaxed. People... there are still people inside the house, thank God. Oh, Tsuna, it's just a voice of a plate or the kind being broken. It's dark, so people tend to be careless around the house. Something being broken, something you accidentally step on-it all bound to happen anyway. He had got to stop being so paranoid just because of this.

_"My God... I need to stay calm. Let's sing Namimori Middle's anthem again. From the top…"_

His steps felt lighter, now that he confirms other human presence beside of him. He chuckled to himself about his own silliness, and he continues to ascend the hill, as he hummed in a low voice.

A few steps and mere seconds later, he heard those screams.

Instinctively, he shot his head backwards. It was from around the same house he heard something being broken.

More screams of people in agony, and Tsuna felt his knees wobble weakly as he jerked backwards in shock. Those screams... it's... as if... it's a scream of pure horror like when Tsuna watched those victims falling from an airplane crash... when they're about to meet their dea-

Another eerie scream of women and men blended together with night's cool ignorant air. It jerked Tsuna to his bottom on the ground, and it sends a pack of adrenaline rushing through his veins, screaming at him to go, run, go away. Go, he must. Away, from whatever horror took place right in front of him. The sound of human voices screaming in agony, sounds of blood splattering from places Tsuna would not like to imagine, and more sounds of things-and bones-breaking... names, questions, more names-always the same one-came flying out the house with a force as if chasing Tsuna away...

...he still could hear the invisible force those sounds and voices gave him ringing on the back of his ears, even as he had run as fast as he could to the peak of the hills and he let himself being pushed down towards gravity down the slope.

_"I didn't hear anything... I didn't hear anything... I didn't do anything...!"_ he kept repeating those sentences again and again, as an act of reassurance.

He didn't know how far he had been running and he didn't much care. But he didn't stop. He couldn't. He took a glance through his shoulder, verifying that he had run far enough from the dreaded place.

But to his horror, he instead saw a bloodied hand and a pair of blue and red eyes out of thin air, trying to reach him.

Tsuna screamed in full horror, as he felt slimy hand touched him on the back of his neck.

Taking that as a cue, he ran faster and faster, forgetting that he was the slowest running student at school and that he had always comes last in a rally. Run, Tsuna, run…

He couldn't sleep.

He couldn't sleep even when he was sleeping inside Lambo and I-Pin's rooms, flanked between the two of them together (and Lambo was drooling on his leg, too). Even when Nana had repeatedly assured him that what he saw was just a projection of his own paranoia, due to the blackout.

That bloody hand and those pair of mismatched eyes still haunt him, making him unable to sleep. It's as if he was under constant watch of that eerie glance...

And so, he couldn't sleep at all. And that's why he was late for school the next day.

He managed to dodge his school's crazy prefect's "whip of love" just by an inch—despite his drowsiness. But he kept snoozing off during classes and even on lunch break and this worries his two best friends. Though not such a bright student at school, as far as his friends knew, Tsuna wasn't the type to usually doze off during lessons.

So being cornered and tired, Tsuna relented and consult to his friends about his worries.

"What? Horror screams and then bloody hand trying to strangle you? Ha, you got a very hyperactive imagination, Tsuna!" his cheerful happy-go-lucky baseball player friend, Yamamoto, laugh everything off like he always did.

"This is a serious case. I didn't know that particular area to be a haunted residence. It was probably the spirit of a vengeful ghost that was murdered cruelly on that house, maybe some of his organs are missing and his body part disembodied, and was buried all over the area. Did he, by any chance, got ahold of you, Tenth?" Gokudera solemnly asked, with an air of seriousness different from Tsuna's earlier friend. And he's using that nickname again; a character from a TV series about a mafia gang who has supernatural abilities that he likes so much. Even though Tsuna felt weird being compared to a fictional 10th supernatural mafia boss...

Anyway, Tsuna told them how the hand managed to reach his back, just a little bit.

Gokudera's eyes become much more focused, and as he folded his arm in front of his chest, he said, "That's not good."

The brunette paled a bit when Gokudera explained that Tsuna might be cursed by that thing, and it will continue to exist as long as the ghost hasn't earned his revenge yet.

"Tsuna, come on. Don't listen to him, he's an occult freak, remember? How many cases are there about people who mistakens white cloth floating in the dark with ghosts under the effect of paranoia? I passed that road on my sushi delivery duty all the time! And often at night, too. And there wasn't any cemetry or any human body parts found or sacred ancient trees cut off before the construction began. My father told me it was a bare land, so there's no chance of that happening, in my opinion."

"Thickheaded idiot like you couldn't possibly understand the soul of supernatural or superstition. Things like this happens all the time at around us, regular people just don't realize it, that's all."

As Tsuna stood helplessly to watch his two friends bicker back and fro, he was rather startled when both of them suddenly turn to him and declare it would be best to look at the crime scene with their own eyes to make sure. So this afternoon, after school is over, the three of them will be heading down towards the house for a test of courage.

The place was exactly how he last saw it yesterday night. He couldn't really remember any details, since there was a blackout and how he got a hand trying to strangle him through thin air and all, but Tsuna was sure no major change occured. And the house they're investigating stood inconspicuously similar like any other around them, nothing seemingly amiss, and nothing out of ordinary.

"So there were people living on this house," Gokudera made a remark as soon as he finished inspecting the outward appearance on the sighted building. "The grass and plants are well taken care of. They probably just cut the weed a few days ago, judging by the condition of the grass. And a vehicle just took off a few hours ago-probably a jeep. The muds on these tire prints are pretty fresh. They probably drove off from someplace where it rains, though maybe they just drive on a pool of water somewhere on the way here."

While Gokudera continue his detective observation on the road of the surrounding area, Yamamoto walked straight onto the vertical fence and ringed the doorbell. Tsuna reprimand his friend for doing such rash thing, because they don't have any excuse for intruding if there really was someone who lives there. But Yamamoto only waved his hand at him, and he peered inside from between the bars when no one seems to answer.

"The entire curtains are closed. According to Gokudera, transportation means just departed a few hours ago. There's no one there to answer the bell. That means there really are no one inside, and we should be save."

"What do you mean 'we should be safe'?" Tsuna frowned.

Once again, Yamamoto managed to astonish him when he went ahead to climb on the fence.

"Wha - are you crazy? Get down off that fence, Yamamoto, before someone sees us!" Tsuna panickly pulled on his friend's trousers, eager to get him down.

But Yamamoto assured him that it was okay, and it was the fastest way to find out about things.

Just when Yamamoto has flunked his leg on the other side of the fence, Gokudera came scrambling to their place, a sentry followed closely behind him.

"Tenth, we've been compromised! Run!" screamed Gokudera on the top of his lungs.

"You little scoundrels! Tresspassing and vandalizing on someone's lot under my very own nose. Not happening! Just wait, you rascals!"

Gokudera quickly took the appaled Tsuna by the hand and dragged him along, while Yamamoto easily jumped off the fence and ran as fast as he could.

After their failed attempt at investigating earlier, Tsuna had to say goodbye to his friends because he got cram school to attend to. Gokudera left with a promise that he would check the background of the house owner as soon as possible, and would let Tsuna know immediately. Yamamoto told him to not worry, because he will try to find better place to continue their courage test, some place where it's a lot scarier and no sentries around.

_"I don't even understand what topic Yamamoto's mind was wandering off to anymore..."_ the brunette gulped and waved at his two friends who already went their separate ways.

Cram school was such a bore. Math, specifically. He still couldn't bring himself to understand integral formulation, even when his tutor has impatiently tapped his pencil on the table in annoyance. Tsuna got a feeling that if he couldn't find miracle to answer the problem for him, that pencil would be flying onto his forehead, right in the middle of his left and right brain.

And it did.

The whole class laughed at his misfortune and he could only rub on his forehead, embarassed.

"Sawada-san is so helpless. We just studied them yesterday!" a young boy with striped red and white scarf on his neck, whose intelligence and photographic memory had allowed him to skip a couple of grades ahead, snickered and looked at Tsuna in a degrading way.

But soon, Tsuna will forget about all the humiliation, though. For what came at night made all his misfortunes seemed so small.

AN: so, I was digging on my earlier archives and found this. It was actually my first attempt at writing horror of any kind, inspired by my friend's story about a blood stain at her work's gordyn that could never get washed off. Haha. Don't know if it suits you readers taste tho... horror is not something you'll see me walking around with. -sweatdrop-

UPDATE 28/12/12: scratch out one or two lines, add sub-title on the chapter number.


	2. Chapter 2

_Devil's Night_

_Chapter II_

"_Foreboding"_

_by Arienna Natalitha_

_Disclaimer: Reborn isn't mine._

_It was the color of the ashes. Grey, as thick as the bars inside that dreaded prison._

_And when blue and red orbs broke free and was reflected on the rust tainted glass… it began to snow._

_Like ash. Covering the blood-tainted floor. All are covered in that monotone color._

_Except for the gleaming red of _their_ blood._

Tsuna snaps his eyes wide open. Sweat was trickling heavily down his forehead, his heartbeat still going on in full speed.

His back was burning painfully the whole time he was trying to sleep last night, and thus, he woke up early with heavier bags under his eyes. Not to mention, another nightmare regarding the 'ghost' he encountered.

He dreamt that he just managed to escape some kind of research facility, where all the test subjects were human, and where everyone was killed except for him. Just when he was following a trail of bloody footsteps on the snow-covered ground, appeared a child with a pair of mismatching eyes. His hand managed to reach out for Tsuna's back and grabbed his shirt forcefully, even when he tried all his effort to escape.

He ignored Lambo's mocking tone on his face and I-Pin's inquiries and walked straight into the bathroom. He opened his baby blue PJs and bends his head backward to see the reflection of his back on the mirror.

There were faint shades of three red dots on it, and Tsuna didn't remember doing any grubby works or bathe using unclean soap as of late to earn such marks. He stared in horror on what his back has suffered, and the throb won't die down even when tried using both cold and hot water to shower.

For the time being, the help of dettol helped him decrease the pain a little bit, and he also ignored his mother's inquiries regarding his well beings. _"The last thing I want is to have my mom found out that I have skin problems and panicly sending me to the emergency room… or that I am actually haunted by a vengeful ghost."_

The throb gets more painful by the time lunch came, though. Tsuna immediately applied some more disinfectant on the bathroom, even though he kinda disliked the smell. It reminded him of the hospital.

Anyway, Saturday's classes are not as long as the regular one. So by noon came, they were all released from school and Yamamoto cheerfully invited Tsuna to go eat with him and the rest of the baseball team to go eat some pizzas. Gokudera hasn't shown even a thread of his hair that day, and the only thing Tsuna received from the half-Italian boy was that he's 'not going to be available in school today'.

"You know what? I can't. I have to pick up Lambo and I-Pin from kindergarten today. But thanks for inviting me anyway, even though I'm not at all part of the baseball club," was Tsuna's response regarding Yamamoto's invitation earlier. He didn't add that it was better for him to probably not come, since almost all of the members standing behind Yamamoto's back were giving him stares and sneers. They never did understand the reason why a popular guy like Yamamoto Takeshi would want to talk - let alone be friends - with Loser Tsuna. And probably never will, so Tsuna decided not to push his luck.

But the picking up business was real, though, so he doesn't really feel all bad from rejecting Yamamoto's offer.

Unfortunately, Yamamoto then decided to bail out of his hang with the baseball team, and offered to accompany Tsuna instead. This, of course, reacts badly with his fellow teammates.

"I can't believe you're ditching us to hang out with that loser!"

"Yeah, we haven't hung in about a while now you know, since all you ever did lately was following him around like some sort of a stray dog. Where's your pride, man?"

"Hey. You can speak all the bad things about me for all you want, I don't care," Yamamoto doesn't sound too happy with the things his teammates were saying. He then continued in a more threatening tone that can make the ones who listen trembled slightly in fear, "But never, ever, speak badly of Tsuna in front of me. You hear?"

"Yamamoto, it's allright..."

But the look in Yamamoto's eyes made everyone fell silent. And after the longest 5 second of tense silence engulfing all of them, they finally turned back and took their leave. Not without last one dirty look towards Tsuna, though.

"Yamamoto, it was really unnecessary. You should have gone with them instead..." despite all that, Tsuna was still trying to convince Yamamoto that he belongs with the baseball team, not with him. It made him uneasy to think that Yamamoto would get in a bad term with his own fellow baseball team, just because of him.

"I can choose for myself wherever I want to belong, Tsuna. It has nothing to do with them," while walking out of the school gate together, Yamamoto casually admits. "Besides, according to Gokudera, you're cursed. It's bad to leave someone who's cursed alone, right?"

Tsuna laughed dryly. "Haha, I kinda don't want to be reminded to that, actually."

Yamamoto has always had his way with children, including Tsuna's foster kid brother and sister, Lambo and I-Pin. When they saw who's accompanying their big bro outside of the fence, they came scrambling out and Lambo was already asking to be carried on Yamamoto's back. And then the merriness continue when Yamamoto invite all of them to eat sushi at his Dad's place.

"Sushi!" the three of them cheered.

That day could have ended peacefully though, if Lambo didn't meet his sort-of rival-friend from the kindergarten on the sushi-ya and ended up having a brawl with him.

The other kid, whose name was Skull and dressed in a punk-goth rocker style complete with ear stud and chains all over his body, was displeased at Lambo dissing his way of eating sushi. Skull was using the fork he brought himself instead of regular chopsticks, and Lambo was quick to spot and point this out in a mocking manner.

And the kid with a strange name and uncanny style of clothing-for kids his age-was in rage and he totally thought Lambo deserves every ink-torpedo his octopus-gun fired. He laughed and pointed at the afro kid's ink painted face, and before Lambo could finish his usual self-control mantra ("To... le... raaaaaaaagh! Lambo-san can't take this anymore!"), he dived for his afro and brings out some toy grenade he managed to sneak from home.

Things got chaotic, and there were a few 'booom!' and 'splash!' got thrown on the air as Lambo's smoke grenade and Skull's ink torpedo hit various spot on the restaurant. They even took it to the next level by flying off to other costumer's table and knocking down a soyu bottle or a plate full of lined up ootoro. I-Pin gasped and clasped both her small hands on her cheeks, while Tsuna stared in horror as the two chibis started to tear down his friend's dad's sushi-ya. If this keeps going on, Tsuna felt a trickle of bad omen that it would cost more than Yamamoto's dad's wrath. Mom might decide confiscate Tsuna's wallet to pay for the damage!

"Lambo, get off the table!" commands Tsuna, but to no avail. Both kids didn't even notice in the midst of their battle.

"Oi, stupid Skull! What the hell are you doing!" On the opposite side of their table, Tsuna saw a foreign boy with spiky blonde hair stood up and shouted at the kid. Beside him, stood a girl with long dark hair covering her right eye, looking as disapprovingly to the kid as the teen.

But by then, the height of the battle was reaching its peak. On _this_ side of the war, Lambo brought out a purple bazooka out of the endless dimension inside his afro hair, and point it out on the enemy. While on _that_ side of the war, Skull brought out a... giant octopus bazooka?-out of the endless space of his pocket, and points it back at Lambo.

"DIE!" screamed the both of them at the same time, and they let out a gigantic smoke bomb and a gigantic ink torpedo simultaneously at each other.

Too bad Yamamoto just happen to walk right between the chaos, all laughing and apologizing that he took too long in finding the box of raw fish that his Dad asked him. Because the shots went straight to him.

The three foreign-looking students who accompanies little harbinger named Skull were not too happy with his antics. The blonde one, who looked like a dangerous school drop-outs delinquents, yell out a stream of pissed off remark ranging from Japanese, English, and the most prominent one, Italian. While another boy, a calm and mysterious-looking boy wearing glasses and grey beanie (and has the strangest tattoo at the most conspicuous place-a barcode on his right cheek), who was originally calmly eating his sushi in peace, disgruntled got up and approached the counter where Yamamoto's dad stood bemusedly. He slaps a wad of cash (and in Euro at that!) on the table. Disregarding Tsuyoshi's confused expression, the male teen said "This will make up for everything" and then walks away towards the exit of the shop.

This, of course, prompts Tsuyoshi to be somewhat insulted and he stood up and began reaching for the teen. That was when the girl from before came in and hurriedly bowed an apology. She said she was sorry that her friends were a little rude, since they were not originally Japanese. Because the girl explained politely, Tsuyoshi's anger was pacified and all end well. The blonde stuffed a purple-grafitti helmet on the kid Skull and dragged him away outside the store, where a man in black leather attire was waiting with his motorcycle, engine on.

But they didn't go just yet, when the girl who introduced herself as "Chrome" approached Yamamoto who was being helped cleaning his face with Tsuna.

"I'm really sorry for our Skull's misbehavior. I will make this up to you," she muttered while bowing an apology.

She gave Yamamoto a hand-writing on a piece of paper. It was written in Japanese and says "Kokuyo Health Land, Sunday, 4 o'clock". Before she left, Tsuna accidentally caught her watching him closely. He could do nothing except to ponder about that, though, since she darted off to her friends when the motorbike's honk was getting restless.

Later on that night, Tsuna's nightmare worsens. It now features an eight-legged octopus with the girl Chrome as its head, strangling his neck.


	3. Chapter 3

_Devil's Night_

_Chapter III_

"_Rain"_

_by Arienna Natalitha_

_Disclaimer: Reborn isn't mine. I'm still grieving about the end of KHR manga. Amanooooo whyyy_

* * *

><p>It was raining. Tsuna woke up from yet another nightmare. And the red spots on his back still didn't go away.<p>

If anything, it merely add up. There were four of them now.

Tsuna was already hyperventilating when he saw his back on the bathroom. He just hoped that his Mom won't realize the stench of disinfectant too much to know there's an actual problem.

Day after day, they were getting worse, his nightmare. And the effect started to show by the bags under his eyes and his droopy countenance in-between lessons.

One day, he couldn't help but to doze off during history, and Nezu slapped his ass into detention. The other boys and girls snicker at this and Tsuna could only scratch his head. Yet another detention, how lovely.

Even though he was already outside the class, Tsuna couldn't help to feel sleepy. Even when he had forced himself to stay awake, because that's where the nightmare would find him.

When he was about to fall off the wall in his sleep, a jolt manage to keep him awake. When he woke up, he saw irritated faces of Yamamoto's baseball teammates. Two of them. One was whose hand supporting the wall right beside Tsuna's ear, the other one is standing on his left side, both hands shoved inside his pant's pocket.

Gokudera had not yet return or giving him any kind of info regarding his "research". Yamamoto said that he wasn't feeling well yesterday, and that he might not go to school today.

If possible, he wasn't really keen on treating his friends as some sort of shields, but this situation begs him to differ. Because he is now put in situation where he's all open for attack.

* * *

><p>The bell signing the end of the day has rang. Cue the chatters of young teenagers as they strutted back to their respective houses.<p>

Tsuna only clutched his lef tighter to his head, trying to block all that noise from his world. After all that experience he had with mocking and bullying from his elementary days to now, he thought he couldn't feel more self-loathing and horrible about himself. Since he made wonderful friends, for a while his world was lit up and the sky wasn't as gloomy as before when he was still alone.

Yet now, he felt all the more terrible once he knew all of that peace was only an illusion he cast on himself. To make himself feel better, he had barricade himself with the figure of Gokudera and Yamamoto, and drowned himself in the self-deceiving pleasure of knowing that he had friends.

And now, all of it crumbles right before his eyes, the delicate thread of lies and hope.

He feels his chest tightens, the wounds those guys inflicted just now hurts more and more. Revenge may be sweet, but the one on the receiving end would beg to differ.

It was because of that day, where Yamamoto Takeshi the ace baseball player of Namimori Middle, chose Loser-Tsuna over his teammates.

But for some reason, Tsuna didn't feel anger. He instead found himself more alive than before. The bitter taste of pain and disappointment felt like the blood running down his mouth and the bruises on his face. It was throbbing pain, it was a tang of sweet and adrenaline, it was blood.

Yet maybe it was the taste of life, the remainder of what was real. Not the floating tangible feel of peace that he originally thought. This is the taste of sweet and bitterness of reality.

It brings some sort of malicious excitement down his spine.

He stayed there for a while, under the drizzle of water petals.

* * *

><p>The gloomy cloud lingers, yet no more droplets of rain came pouring down.<p>

Tsuna walked home without much spirit left. He was supposed to go to his cram school today, but he honestly doesn't have the mood to study integrals or algebra. Mr Reborn wouldn't be pleased of his skipping, and he probably would call Mom to ask for Tsuna's whereabouts, and then Mom would flip when he got home.

But going to cram school now… who is to say that Mr Reborn wouldn't add injury to his self-esteem, despite it had hit the rock bottom already? And probably Fuuta would pitch in with his ever so condescending comments, too.

He's going to get the sour end either way, so he decided to skip.

Maybe he can go visit Yamamoto while he's at it… but then he'll want to know what caused the bruises on Tsuna's face, and Tsuna doesn't want to be the cause of further hostility between the baseball club's members. So he walked to the river instead, laying his head on the grass while waiting for the sun to set, even though it's rather damp because of the drizzle.

* * *

><p>"So you're here," a voice as smooth as the wind's whisper called out near his eardrums, and Tsuna was forced to open his eyes. He peered to his left and then to his right, yet he found no figure. He sat up and turned his head, finding a person hovering just above him. "I've been looking all over for you, you know."<p>

Tsuna frowned at the person, whom he recognized as the same girl as the one he met at Yamamoto's sushi shop. There was a bandage covering her right eye, and there was a smile adorning her small round face. "Is there something you need from me…?" Tsuna hesitantly asked.

"At last, we're finally able to meet each other. Do you know how long I've been wondering about you ever since that day? But I'm feeling much stronger lately, so I don't have to wait anymore. I'm here, you're here, all is good," she clapped her hands once. She chuckled at the perplexed Tsuna and continued, "By the way, I still don't know your name. What should I call you?"

"Why do you want to know?" Tsuna eyed her suspiciously as he sit straight. There was an odd air hovering around the girl. He couldn't place it well, but something told him that he should stay wary.

"Why, don't be so defensive. We have been rather intimately interconnected, haven't you realize?"

That person stuck out his palm and revealed the item she was apparently holding. It was a small round pin, with the kanji "spring" written on black surface. It occurred to Tsuna that it was just like his, the one that he realized went missing a few days ago.

"Why do you have this?" Tsuna asked as slight horror began creeping in over the realization.

"Because you drop it," the girl – Chrome, was it? – said. "On that night. Remember? When I was trying to reach out for you and you ran."

Tsuna paled and his whole body stiffened. Hundreds of alarms inside him went off and told him to get away, because this smells like bad news. Could she really be implying…? But that's not possible… no one was supposed to know about that. He didn't even realize about the pin himself until now.

"But this is as far as I'm going to return the things you drop." The strangest thing happened. In sync with the cold breeze of the wind, the feature of the sweet yet cryptic looking girl faintly changes, to the face of a man with hetero chromatic eyes and hair as dark as the night blue sky. Another odd thing is, he looked frighteningly similar with that thing—someone—that Tsuna sees haunting his dreams. The images keep changing back and forth—from the girl to the boy, vice versa—but the eyes and the grin on that face stay the same. "Let's get to know each other better from now on, okay?"

Was Tsuna having his nightmare re-enact even though he was still wide awake?

"_And you know how to find me, Tsunayoshi-kun."_ That same voice said inside his head. It occurred to him that this voice was also the one which has been haunting him in his sleep every night.

Suddenly, a jolt woke him up.

Wait, _woke_ him? Tsuna realizes that he was lying on the grass, panting and sweating. But he didn't remember falling asleep. Did he, just now? Fall asleep on the grass? Was that strange encounter with the girl merely a dream?

But the pin resting on the palm of his hands screamed otherwise. Tsuna couldn't believe his own eyes. What just happened?

* * *

><p>AN: When did I last updated? This chapter was already long done, but it was just sitting there unpolished until today, where I saw it again for the first time. There wasn't really much going on aside from Tsuna angsting and acting bewildered in this chapter. At least Muku-chan has made some contact. Man, this chapter is really short. And I'm taking it reaaal slow. Sorry. But I guess, better be slow than not at all, eh? #slapself<p> 


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